Days until start of exams: 28Hiya everybody! Your one and only, double-vaxxed without symptoms, absolute favourite procrastinator back here in an attempt to escape from marking practice exams (which is somehow even more dreadful than doing them...)
I hope everyone's had a great holidays so far. The days fly by so quickly, I can't believe there's less than a week until school goes back. It feels kind of surreal actually having to put on the uniform and haul myself there (and by that I mean sit my licence-less butt in the car, get driven, and still manage to complain) after such a long time away. One thing that's been a huge annoyance is that I didn't go to school on the day that lockdown was announced, hence leaving half of my Chem resources, all the ACs and essays I've written in a year,
and my scientific calculator in my locker, so I sure am looking forward to sweet reprieve >.<
With less than a month until the beginning of the final boss fight, I think I've made decent progress in the last week or so. As a pre-emptive way to make up for the inevitable second-week slack, I set out to do two practice exams a day for the first half, leaving me now with mostly easy but rather uninspiring tasks such as editing essays, going over content, making flashcards etc. To my own surprise, I've so far successfully resisted the urge to succumb to the grip of Netflix during study sessions (s.o to Marylen for staying so disciplined in spite of Squid Game and motivating me to do the same!); definitely reassuring to know that I'll never again have to exercise that self-control after November 9th xd
Holiday progress:- Got out of bed by 8:30 every day and 8:30 is basically 8:00 say I'm right say it
- Actually did exercise?! I picked up HIIT workouts (youtube of course xd) and they're actually not too awful
- Eng Lang 2012-2016 VCAA and 2013 VATE
- Chemistry 2013-2015 VCAA (lol really thought I was going to do 10 exams...)
- Titrations content revision (yay)
- Methods 2009-2013 VCAA, 2018-2019 MAV
- Practice report for U4 AOS3 Chem SAC
Haven't finished:- Two identity essays (sigh)
- Fuels content revision
(loud sigh)- Cut down Eng Lang exam times
- Methods company exams
- Two more Eng Lang and Chemistry exams each
Eng LangI wanted to do about 8 exams this holidays, and it looks like I can get there but I kind of doubt how much my Eng Lang study actually works. Especially since my tutor advised me to pick U4-based essays, I feel like I'm almost getting to the copy/paste point, which is meant to be good, but I can't shake the feeling that I've stagnated in quality. The absolute worst thing ever about wordy subjects is that it's so hard to self mark; aside from short answer questions, giving realistic marks for section B and C is next to impossible, and my tutor only has so much time after all. My consistent exam time of 2h 20m is not looking particularly nice at this point either; although I usually don't include reading time (sniff do I smell lazy), 20 whole minutes over just to finish the whole exam seems... a little shaky. I seriously need to take care of the time issue soon or else suffer in 4 weeks
(4 weeks?!) ;-;
MethodsMy love Methods. I've focused on Methods revision in the last month so much that I used up my CAS batteries again in a few weeks (compared to three terms last year... ahem...) and I'm starting to feel good about the exam. My times are down to ~40 minutes for exam 1 and ~1h 40m for exam 2, averaging around 110-115/120. Honestly the papers are starting to get repetitive and I keep sitting down to a practice exam thinking 'seriously? This again?', but the thought of the real exam still absolutely petrifies me. Those silly mistakes still bother me so much; I'll sometimes be forced to lose an entire mark because of
one incorrect sign, or a 2 that somehow became a 5. I need to figure out a way to stop my brain from processing exactly the same, mistake-ridden way when I check my answers but I would say Methods is definitely my most confident subject at this point.
ChemistryIf only I could reach my flashpoint in order to auto-ignite and spontaneously combust, I'd be free from the wrath of rinsing techniques and IUPAC naming forever. xd believe it or not, I don't hate Chem as much as I dramatically proclaim in every single post; some of the content is actually pretty interesting (I love zwitterions), but the sheer load is just... so hard to keep up with. I feel like even the multiple choice questions require knowledge of so. many. concepts and multi-step calculations, whereas with Bio you could usually rule out half the options with just a glance of the question. I know good study should consist of practice exams, practice exams, and more practice exams
(parallelism, listing, repetition, and the adjectival intensifier 'more' to create emphasis) but I'm not even caught up with all the content. I feel like I've let down Chemistry so much this year, especially considering that I have TSFX, so hopefully I'll be able to take a U-turn and not let all of that tutoring go to waste.
Ah, thanks for once again tuning into my rambling session. I know I complain a lot, so I hope this doesn't sour everyone's mood! Please stay safe and stay strong; the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer and soon we'll reap the rewards of a hard year's effort. Until next time, take care, rest up, and have a wonderful return to school~